Great Fortress of Cynthia
the 'Great Fortress of Cynthia ' is a vast castle-like complex of walls, towers, bastions, sally-ports, and embankments located in the center of the city of Cynthia. It was designed to defend the city's royal Palace and it's Great Dragon Temple. Built on a scale similar to the Fortress of Warfang, It was meant to hold off attackers long enough for reinforcements to reach the city. This fortress was nearly destroyed along with the rest of the city during the Koozer-Ga War. =Construction= "I shall build a city to honor Her, and it's fortress will stand forever, a beacon against all who would seek to destroy us"-Fira , describing his thoughts on the founding of Cynthia, The Legend of Cynder: A New Beginning Prior to the first of several conflicts in what would become known as the Dragon Civil War, the Area of what would becaom the heavily fortified city of Cynthia was a barren mesa bordering the Valley of Souls, a canyon system used since very ancient times to travel through the area, in lieu of traveling through the thick jungle surrounding the then non-volcanic Temple Mountain. After Malfor's failed attempt to take and sack Warfang resulted in him being eaten by Cynder, Fira founded the City on the mesa, a strategic position giving it control of all traffic then passing though the mountains. Cynder responded to this as an honor, and had a palace built there. The High Council then responded to her by building another Great Dragon Temple, similar to the one that had already been built in Warfang. As the city was being built, an immense fortress was built up around it, and the city soon spread rapidly to cover the entire mesa, before being surrounded bu walls itself, and the Great Causeway built over the canyon to provide direct access to the city. Defensive Layout The Fortress itself was actually a series of embankments, thick stone walls, Tall towers of multiple construction, Bastions, and sally-ports; more like city walls then a solid fortification- a fortress in name only, and, like Warfang, thought to be impenetrable; having survived a fair number of sieges, like Warfang had. However, The Coming wars were to prove that even that fortification was tough-but not invincible. =The Fall of Cynthia= See main Article: Battle for Cynthia "Assault this city?! it's a fool's gambit, This city has never fallen...to any siege....by anyone!"-Zarasha expressing her confidence in Cynthia's defenses over a malinia since the city was founded, Confidence in the city's defenses, and especially in those of the city's fortress was absolute. The city had survived intact for over a thousand years, and like Warfang, had withstood every assault. The Koozer-Ga had went around it during the previous war, and had assaulted Patala instead. The city then stood inviolate for another 800 years as the Cydonian Dynasty in Warfang changed hands along it's royal family lines, culminating in the birth of Cynder III. Later, as she grew older and began to understand her responsibility to inherit the throne from her elderly parents, she was sent on an expedition to the Nanatalean Empire, a pseudo-feudal Japanese culture of humanoid panthers led by Xinxala. When she returned from this expidition, she was ordered to educate her about their far more advanced culture (the Nanatalean Empire itself was Pre-industrial, Civilized but at a severe disadvantage to the other powers technologically). While in the Catacombs, the Koozer-Ga attacked and infested Warfang, killing her parents. Though the city was evacuated before the parasite overran the lower districts, Cynder III was devastated. The Siege After retreating to Cynthia, it is learned that the nearby city-states, Natala, and Icy Canyon, had been attacked and overran in a similar fashion, but that their citizens had barricaded themselves in the Underground City's ruins, north of Warfang. The Parasite then moved on Cynthia, which proceeded to serve as a base of operations for the Dragon Confederation's government, who were coordination a planetary evacuation, and preparing to hold the Valley of Souls, which the Koozer-Ga had to cross to reach the western cities. When the Koozer-Ga were sighted outside the city, Cynder III and Xinxala were moved to the Orbital Defense station, Unyielding Defiance, which, due to losing contact with Warfang and the Great Dragon Temple there, had went on high alert. The Koozer-Ga later assaulted the city and burned most of it to the ground despite losing most of their army when the Great Causeway collapsed. They later besieged this fortress, and were defeated, but later came back and took the city.